Contents

Plot

Leonard Swindley is forced to sack Mr Frobisher, Dobson and Hawkes’s Father Christmas who has been caught drinking on the job. Even though it’s now January seconded manager Wally Hunt is not pleased as the stock of toys is still far too high and he was keeping the grotto open to push sales. His solution is to rebrand the grotto; Father Christmas and Fairy Glitter are dispensed with and Swindley and gormless trainee assistant manager Patrick Gorman are installed in their place as “King Fun” and his jester “Jingle”. Things start to go wrong when their predecessor’s bottles of Newton & Ridley ale are found in the lucky dip and the radiator in the grotto goes into overdrive. When the day comes to an end Mrs Edgeley reports seeing Mr Frobisher leaving with the two men’s everyday clothes and, still in their grotto clothing, they are forced to travel by bus to his home to collect the items, provoking anger from the harassed conductor and being the cause of a strange case of mistaken identity in a cream cracker competition. On arriving at his house they find that the journey was a waste of time - Frobisher had left their suits with “Fairy Glitter” when he left the store. The next day, when things seemingly couldn’t get worse for Swindley’s dignity, Hunt imposes on him once more; keen to sell his extra stock of toy Daleks, he has the grotto transformed into a “lunar cave”. Gorman is a spaceman while Swindley, fully costumed, is the “thing from another world”…

Contents

Summary

Characters

References

The Doctor dreams that his life becomes the basis for a TV programme, which is cancelled in favor of Coronation Street. This mirrors the real-life situation from the late 1980s when Doctor Who on the BBC aired directly opposite "Corrie" on ITV. The long-running soap opera (the only UK dramatic series to surpass Doctor Who in longevity) consistently scored higher ratings against the later seasons of Doctor Who and this is widely considered a contributing factor in the classic series being taken off the air in 1989.

"Christmas Special" was the first holiday themed episode of Star Trek: Phoenix-X. It took place in the first season, after Chapter 2 (which is after Episode 17) and before Episode 18. The episode was classified as a "special".

Summary

While transporting a group of Helenion refugees home, the Phoenix-X slams into a large Isatonic Crystal asteroid. Daniel finds the value in the crystal and orders the crew to mine it. But the Tree species arrive, enemies of the Helenions and the Federation, and attempt to fight - luckily all is saved when a special jolly guest arrives to change things.

Background information

This episode is the first holiday based "special" in the series. The second being the Season 3 episode "Halloween Special".